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Munde willing to step down, offers deputy CM post to RPI for support to Sena-BJP

In a bid to woo the dalits to the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena alliance, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde on Tuesday reiterated his offer of deputy chief ministership to the RPI leadership.

Talking to reporters in Pune before embarking on a three-day tour of Marathwada region, Munde said, "I am serious about the offer to the RPI if the four leaders -- Prakash Ambedkar, R S Gavai, Jogendra Kawade and Ramdas Athavale -- withdraw from the fray and campaign for the BJP-Sena alliance candidates in Maharashtra."

Asked if he would move to Delhi in the event of the BJP and its allies forming the next central government, Munde said 'no' twice.

"I will stay in Maharashtra only. There is no chance of my going to Delhi," he asserted. However, "I am willing to step down from the deputy chief ministership and work for the party in the state".

Munde said senior Congress leader and former defence minister Sharad Pawar made a similar offer to the RPI leaders whenever the Congress comes to power in the state in the future, but "I am offering the deputy chief ministership today".

Asked if his offer to the RPI was in view of the possible threat to his brother-in-law, BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan,who is pitted against Athawale in Bombay North East, Munde said it was not so.

To another question on his claim that the Sena-BJP alliance would bag at least 40 out of the 48 seats in Maharashtra while Chief Minister Manohar Joshi feels the fight would be tough and need vigorous campaigning, Munde said in keeping with the chief minister's observations, "I am visiting 250 places in the state and addressing rallies."

He also disclosed that the BJP's star campaigners Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L K Advani, Pramod Mahajan and Sushma Swaraj would tour the state during the second phase of campaigning along with Sena chief Bal Thackeray, Manohar Joshi and youth leaders Raj and Uddhav Thackeray. Vajpayee would address a joint rally with Bal Thackeray at Shivaji Park in Bombay on February 25.

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